Grenade causes bomb scare in New Albany neighborhood

New Albany, MS- Friday afternoon, December 30th, New Albany law enforcement officers were alerted to a “possible explosive device” when a grenade was found in a residential neighborhood here.

New Albany Chief of Police Chris Robertson said a call came about 1 p.m. Friday afternoon from a resident in the Forest Heights neighborhood who found the object while “cleaning out” a home. “It appeared to be a typical pineapple-type, pull-the-pin grenade,” said Robertson. “We believed it was probably a training device. The pin and spoon were intact.”

The object found, similar to the one shown here, appeared to be a variant of the MK2 fragmentation hand grenade used by American military forces for over 50 years.

The hand grenade was believed to have been from the World War II era.

Robertson said different types of training grenades had been used by the U.S. military and NAPD officers believed it was probably harmless, but he removed the device from the neighborhood in his department vehicle. The Tupelo Police Department bomb squad was called, came to New Albany, and took possession of the weapon.

The elderly gentleman in whose home the grenade was found told police he had bought it at a flea market many years ago.

The Mk 2 grenade (sometimes written Mk II) was introduced by the U.S. armed forces in 1918, near the end of World War I. It is a fragmentation type anti-personnel device, and was the standard issue used by U.S. military services during World War II, the Korean Conflict and the early part of the Vietnam War.

The MK2 was designed by John M. Browning, also the inventor of the venerable .45 caliber Colt 1911 semi-automatic pistol, still considered the “one true pistol” by many handgun aficionados. Many variants of the grenade were introduced during the half-century the MK2 was used by American troops, and hundreds of thousands were manufactured.